It’s time for a NEW series! The first ever Apex Hunters United Endurance Series is due to kick off later today, run by Shane van Gisbergen, Nick Foster & OSR – Oceanic Sim Racing.
We’ve entered a Porsche RSR in the GTE class to be piloted by Andrew Kahl and James Scott, with Round 1 kicking off with 4 Hours of Silverstone.
Watch LIVE at LETS Race at 6PM AEST!
Round 6 of the V8 SCOPS Premier Series was run at the weekend at Donington Park and after five rounds, it has been an extremely tight battle with Trans Tasman Racing and Round 6 was no exception.
Qualifying was kind to Cooper Webster, getting Pole Position in both the Sprint and the Feature race, continuing our strong run of qualifying performances and one lap pace. However, the races would turn out to be a more difficult affair, with our long run pace being a little behind our friends at TTR.
Jordan Caruso would manage the tyres best in Race 1, taking the victory ahead of a fast closing Madison Down. Cooper unfortunately lost out on the final podium slot at the penultimate turn, but came home in fourth with James Scott close behind in 5th.
Race 2 would again see Cooper have a strong run early out front, however was undercut in the pit stops from both Madison and Jordan to come out in 3rd place after the pit stop. After a mid race safety car, it was all to play for between the two teammates, with Jordan nursing older tyres and Cooper trying to make the definitive move. At race’s end, Jordan and Cooper would finish 2nd and 3rd, behind race and round winner Madison Down.
The competitiveness and friendly rivalry with TTR is pushing everyone really hard and made for a very enjoyable season so far. This culminated in both teams having 5 drivers each inside the Top 10 of the Race 2 standings. Can it get much closer!?
Special mention also to Beau Albert finishing with a solo PB finish of 9th in Race 2, after more than 9 months out of a V8 Supercar!
Next round… Watkins Glen! That’s sure to be a big one.
We may be a little slow with our news report, but we were far from that on the race track last time out at Charlotte, starting from qualifying with Seth DeMerchant getting a front row start for the first time during this campaign, and three cars within the top 8.
The race itself would prove to be strong for the Altus trucks, as the long run pace looked really solid, and some good strategy calls helping to push towards the front. It looked like a victory was on the cards with Merch and Jordy both running at the front at times.
It looked set for a grandstand finish with Merch closing in just laps from the end, before getting loose and tagging the outside wall just as it was time to pounce. Nevertheless though, an Altus 2-3 finish was a great result and one we can continue to build on.
Michael Cosey Jr & Matt Danson recorded Top 20 finishes, while Braden Boulos was left with nowhere to go in a late caution, and had to retire from the race.
Two races to go in Round 1 of RTP. Martinsville this week and Dover and two week’s time. Let’s get to Round 2!
We are delighted to announce the arrival of 2021 Porsche Esports Supercup competitor Carlos Fenollosa to the team as we strive toward a return to the series in 2022.
We have big goals for the next year, with some big moves incoming. Watch this space!
What a night! V8 SCOPS Premier Series at Road Atlanta was our most complete team performance in our history.
2 Races
2 Pole Positions
2 Wins for Cooper Webster
5 out of 6 Podiums
1 Round Win
In Race 1 we got off to a flyer with a commanding qualifying performance, with Cooper Webster getting Pole Position by 0.2sec from James Scott, a further 0.1sec clear of the field. Cooper had a poor getaway however was able to climb back to James and put the winning move a few laps from the finish to lead home an Altus 1-2.
Race 2 saw the return of Jordan Caruso, who was unavailable for Race 1 with real world driver training duties at Phillip Island. However with just a few laps warmup, was able to slot the #12 into 3rd on the grid behind James who took Pole Position ahead of Cooper. It was the second case of bad starts for the man on pole, with James dropping back early before reclaiming 3rd place. Cooper comfortably led home a historic 1-2-3 and the first ever Altus podium lockout.
This is just reward for all the excellent work from the team, with a lot of hype and activity behind the scenes contributing to the on track performances that have seen 3 round wins out of 5 so far.
Let’s get onto the next one!
We’ve been waiting all season to say that! With the championship season coming to a close on Friday night, Julian Dunne put another trophy in the virtual cabinet, securing the F3A Championship after a commanding season.
Making it two cars on the podium, Sam Blacklock brought the #215 in 3rd place overall marginally behind DBM x SE’s Kobi Williams who had a wonderful season.
Keen on getting involved in next F3A season? You may want to consider a coaching session with the champ. Jump onto Virtual Racing School and book in a time, or compare your data against Julian’s to see for yourself how you may be able to achieve your own potential quicker.
As a recap of the V8 SCOPS Premier Series weekend, we thought we’d start with the Porsche Support Series that was run on Friday night, where Beau Albert and ERT’s Riley Preston would have a tremendous stoush for the round. Beau would ultimately come out victorious with a dominant opening race from pole, and narrowly missing out on the Race 2 win, but walked away with the round win nonetheless.
We’re going to take things back to last week’s eNASCAR Road to Pro race at Darlington, where we ran a special one-off retro inspired livery for the race.
It didn’t really turn out to be a good omen, as we had a tough day at the track where we found ourselves in the midfield for the bulk of the race. Highlights were Merch and Cosey being able to move forward from where they qualified, Cosey up a +15 spots and Merch +8, it was a tougher time for Jordy, Matt and Braden who all stayed around where they started in the all-green race. On brighter news, Christian had another top 10 in the second split, and now is sitting pretty inside the Top 10 in the overall standings, with a very consistent run so far.
We’ve already been working towards the next round, with our outright pace in qualifying being a focal point as we head to Charlotte this coming week.
The Australian Online Supercar Championship went into Endurance season, with championship leader James Scott finding himself without an enduro partner given the rules on partner eligibility. James wasn’t the only one in this scenario, with Synergy Sim Racing‘s Jordan Ross also in the same boat. A couple of conversations and a Virtual Racing School setup later, and the AltuSSR pairing was ready!
It didn’t go to plan with a netcode for the ages dropping them back early on, however they both showed great determination to bring the car back to the front, and ultimately taking a Silverstone 650 race win!
There was great Synergy within the Altus Commodore, and a victory capped off a memorable night. Many thanks to Jordan and SSR for joining us for the race.
Having put together a great season so far in the Oceanic Dirt Sim Events- ODSE 360 Power Series 2, Tim Ryan wasn’t about to let a pesky injury get in the way. The week earlier Tim broke his elbow and wrist in a crash on his bike, but with some pain killers and gritted teeth, Tim would get himself a heat win, a Top 8 Shootout win and the overall victory in the feature. GG Ryno!